British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
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The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, also known as the Empire Air Training Scheme, Empire Air Training Plan, Joint Air Training Scheme, or simply "The Plan", was a massive air-training program involving Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia during World War II. It remains the largest single aviation training program in history and was responsible for training nearly half the pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, gunners, wireless operators and flight engineers of the Commonwealth air forces during WWII.
General description
The British Air Ministry set up The Plan after participating countries signed an agreement in December 1939. The United Kingdom was a poor location for air training, due to the possibility of enemy attack, the strain caused by wartime traffic at airfields, and the climate, so The Plan called for the Dominions to train the majority of personnel. The organizers initially planned to train nearly 50,000 air crews each year, for as long as necessary: 22,000 air crews from Britain, 13,000 from Canada, 11,000 from Australia and 3,300 from New Zealand. Under the agreement, air crews received elementary training in the various Commonwealth countries before travelling to Canada for advanced courses. They were then supposed to be assigned to designated national squadrons within the Royal Air Force (RAF) (although in practice they were often assigned to British squadrons).Canada was the primary location for the plan due to ample supplies of fuel, wide open spaces suitable for navigation training, industrial facilities for the production of trainer aircraft, parts and supplies, the lack of any real threat from Luftwaffe and Japanese fighter planes, and its relative proximity to both the European and Pacific theatres. Over 167,000 students, including over 50,000 pilots, trained in Canada under the program from May 1940 to March 1945. While the majority of those who successfully completed the program went on to serve in the RAF, over half (72,835) of the 131,553 graduates were Canadians.
Because of its prominence in the plan, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to Canada as "the Aerodrome of Democracy", a play on his earlier description of the United States as "the Arsenal of Democracy". At its height, The Plan included 231 training sites, more than 10,000 aircraft and 100,000 military administrative personnel.
In late 1944 the Air Ministry announced the winding-up of the plan, since the Commonealth air forces had long had a surplus of air crews.
Legacy
The legacy of the plan in Canada included a strong post-war aviation sector and many new or improved airports across the country, the majority of which are still in use. The classic BCATP airport consisted of three runways, each typically 2,500 feet (760 meters) in length, arranged in a triangle so that aircraft could always land (more-or-less) into the wind — that was critically important at a time when most light training aircraft (such as the Harvard) were taildraggers, which are difficult to land in strong cross-winds. That triangular runway outline is perfectly preserved at Gananoque Airport, but is still easily visible under later runway extensions at most Canadian BCATP airports, such as Kingston/Norman Rogers Airport and Boundary Bay Airport. Later modifications have often resulted in one runway being lengthened to handle larger aircraft such as jets, and in less-used runways being closed or converted to taxiways.
In 1959, Queen Elizabeth II unveiled The Ottawa Memorial, a monument erected in Ottawa, Canada to "[commemorate] by name some 800 men and women who lost their lives while serving or training with the Air Forces of the Commonwealth in Canada, the West Indies and the United States and who have no known grave".
See also
References
- F.J. Hatch. Aerodrome of Democracy: Canada and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan 1939-1945. Canadian Department of National Defence, 1983. Includes a complete listing of BCATP schools and other sites. [Downloadable PDF version].
External links
- ["The Canadian Contribution" (includes newspaper archives)]
- [World War II Newspaper Archives — The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.]
- ["Thematic Study: WWII Aerodromes and associated structures in New South Wales.]
- [Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum]
- [Veterans Affairs Canada - Commonwealth Air Training Plan]
- [Photographs of BCATP memorial, Middleton, Nova Scotia]
- [Photographs of BCATP memorial, Kingston, Nova Scotia]
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